Hi all,
I wanted to share a free tool I’ve been working on that might be useful for choosing or caring for succulent species for your outdoor gardens. The site is called Easyscape: https://easyscape.com
You can enter any address or city (or drop a pin) in the world, and it will generate a list of plants that are native to that exact square mile, or toggle to show non-native plants that should grow well there based on your exact climate. While not explicitly a site for succulents, it does contain over 600 succulent species to explore. The site is intended to be a global resource to allow anyone to find their top native and climate suitable plants.
The site is powered by 120 million plant observations (GBIF) and over 6 billion climate and elevation data points. We’ve spent years organizing and manually building detailed native range maps for nearly 14,000 garden-suitable species.
Using this data, the site provides local climate suitability recommendations for each plant on the species pages, including estimated irrigation needs, based on how your local conditions matches up to those of the plant’s core native range. I will say that there are many species of succulents that have very limited native observations in the wild, and such species tend to have poorer maps and less accurate climate and irrigation recommendations. The irrigation recommendations would obviously be best suited for in-ground plants as well.
Here are a few examples of interactive species lists generated for succulents.
406 succulents that are climate matches for San Diego, California:
https://easyscape.com/categories/succulent?address=san-diego-california&filter=cultivated
27 succulents native to Cape Town, South Africa:
https://easyscape.com/categories/succulent?address=cape-town-south-africa&filter=native
32 succulents native to Tucson, Arizona:
https://easyscape.com/categories/succulent?address=tucson-arizona&filter=native
The lists above can be filtered further in the search tab (/search) for dozens of plant attributes. There are also a few other features, including local and online nursery availability and a satellite-based garden planning tool.
The site is still a work in progress, so I’d really appreciate any feedback before a big update later this spring. I'm aware that the climate matching features are not always optimized for succulents and may not consider dormancy periods accurately, so any insights on how we could make the site better for everyone would be very helpful. I'd also love to know if we’re missing native species (non garden hybrids) that are available in local nurseries (or if you’d like a local nursery added). We’ve got an update coming soon with much improved recommendations and detailed native pollinator information that may interest some here. A toggle to metric values will also be added.
by Easyscape_Plants
11 Comments
I just tried it and it’s amazing! Have you ever thought about applying this software for use in rewilding/conservation purposes eg: highlighting native plants that are regionally scarce/endangered?
This is FANTASTIC! Love it! Thank you! ❤️
Thanks! what a great resource.
That is amazing!
This is pretty amazing!👏🏼👏🏼
There is none where I live. I’m not surprised but I was kind of hopeful.
Great site! I had no idea there were local native succulents in my area, but apparently yucca!
Also helpful for the other plant types also – I recently reseeded my lawn, and it was hard to find what I should use. I prefer native, but realistically what will support and not ruin local animal life.
This is so cool!
This is SUCH a great idea, thanks for sharing. I’ve thought about a garden planner that had similar features when adding plants but haven’t had the time or know how to get it done. Thrilled to see someone doing it! Gonna share this with the #nativePlants feed on BSky too.
I love this so much! I don’t have to manually type in or look deep into the web for native plants. I want to plant a few native succs so I will definitely be using this website.
I love this so much!! People like you amaze me, thanks for sharing!!